Conservatives take Trudeau out of context in ad. Surprised?

The ad, above, is one of a trio of “attack ads” the Conservative Party of Canada launched today some of which are apparently airing on news channels and which, of course, are available on the Web.

In the ad posted here, there is what, on its face, would appear to be a deadly-killer line from Trudeau “Quebecers are better than the rest of Canada.”

But, as CTV parliamentary reporter Danielle Hamandjian explains in a series of tweets today (reproduced below), that quote lifted by the Conservatives comes from a 1999 interview on CTV in which Justin Trudeau was explaining the views of his father, Pierre Trudeau. In other words, that killer-quote does not belong to Justin. Rather it is Justin paraphrasing Pierre to explain his father’s views.

“Canada isn’t doing well right now because it’s Albertans who control our community and socio-democratic agenda. It doesn’t work,” Trudeau said in French to interviewer Patrick Lagace on the Tele-Quebec program Les francs-tireurs (The Straight Shooters).

Lagace then asked Trudeau if he thought Canada was “better served when there are more Quebecers in charge than Albertans?”

Trudeau replied: “I’m a Liberal, so of course I think so, yes. Certainly when we look at the great prime ministers of the 20th century, those that really stood the test of time, they were MPs from Quebec… This country – Canada – it belongs to us.”

12 comments

I’m fascinated that attack ads never seem to try and attack policy. Rather, they tend to try and make some digs at the personality of their opponents. Unfortunately for the advertiser, I think attack ads tell you more unsavoury things about their source than their target.

Interesting that the Prime Minister is “sickened” by the bullying that has contributed to a young womans suicide but is quite prepared to use tactics that are intended to ridicule and embarrass other politicians. I wonder where his line in the sand is?

Justin has no experience – turning surpluses into deficits, spending billions on a fighter nobody else seems to want, defending pork barrel politicians like Tony Clement, has buddies that like to give their ex escorts jobs. No experience sending voters to the wrong polling stations, badmouthing Canada’s European like socialism to foreign audiences, no experience cheating on election financing to win an election. Yeah, I really wish he was more like what the Tories are offering. Mr. Harper, please keep your shirt on …I just ate.

These attack ads go to show all Canadians that Harper and the Conservatives have nothing nice or positive to say about themselves, so they must resort to saying bad and negative things about their opponents.

Also, from the perspective of this British Columbian, I think Trudeau iks right about Alberta,. I live in the Central Interior and I’ve seen people from Alberta basically bash and bully British Columbia and the people living here because some of us oppose the Northern Gateway Pipeline. Some of the stuff that has been said by Albertans, on Facebook and various other forums, as well as some stuff I’ve seen in person is untrue, deeply negative, highly charged, and makes Albertans look like complete jerks.

Judging by the number of Alberta plates I’ve seen here during the summer, B.C. is Alberta’s vacation spot, yet when we don’t want our beautiful province trashed by/ Alberta bitumen the claws come out and we are treated like traitors.

And nobody can deny that our Alberta PM and MPs, after labeling us “radical environmentalists and First Nations groups funded by foreign money” haven’t purposely been playing Alberta off of B.C. in a poor attempt to ram the Northern Gateway Pipeline down our throats. Maybe B.C. can separate from Alberta and join Quebec too.

It hardly matters whether the “attack” is politically or personally aimed, is in/out of context or is hardly relevant. What matters is that while many people can think for themselves and ignore these, many don’t and will lap this up like a hungry cat with a bowl of milk. The ads are out there because they work. How pathetic is that?

His statement back in December is far worse than the one highlighted by the ad. The context of the Pierre Trudeau statement is that he passed those beliefs “ONTO US” so that’s an admission that the views are still valid ones. What’s the big problem, then, other than the fact that attack ads based on ridicule do not really work in politics?

Yes, the ad takes him out of context…. or does it really? Note the words “as he passed it on to us” and then note the french interview he did when he compared Albertans to Quebecers, where he clearly expresses the opinion that he thinks Quebecers are better than Albertans at least.

So, technically it’s true they are taking him out of context in a strict verbal sense. But deep down, we know he means what is implied in the ad.

Not only was the statement regarding Quebecers taken out of context, the “striptease” was used to belittle Mr. Trudeau. I find it interesting that the St. Catharines Standard published an article on the attack ads but omitted to mention the statement issued by the Canadian Liver Association on Monday. The statement explained that the event was a fundraiser for their cause and that with Mr. Trudeau’s help they raised a lot of money. Mr. Trudeau only removed his shirt. Were they (the Standard) also unaware that Harper’s wife was in attendance? She was smiling!

I want to see the full interview and judge for myself how dangerous Justin is to Canada or is not.
I don’t need other people making excuses for him. If he did anything other than state his Dad’s views and distance himself from them, then I hope his words are engraved on his own political tombstone as well as that of the liberal party of Canada.
Nelson H

Its a typical Steven Harper response. In his 1970′s year book he wrote “Depose the student council”. He was such a nerd in those days and had no hope of ever having any clout with the council. His defense was to attack. Now decades later what’s he doing..attacking again cuz he has no hope of winning against Justin. Some people never grow up and never change.